NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20572, 14 June 1932, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

TO THE EDITOR OT TH» PABSS. Sir,—l have been deeply interested in tlie letters to The Press with reference to tho probablo causes of defects in New Zealand butter, and more particularly an item stating that Devonshire people preferred New Zealand butter to their own. First, one must realise that in tha beginning of summer in England English butter is to be obtained in any quantity or at least sufficient to supply the needs of Devon people. I found in my three years' residence there that English butter was cheaper in the summer than New Zealand. I am quite in agreement with the information imparted in your paper übout tho preference being given to New.Zealand, but I venture to say this only applies during tho summer months in Devon. Asked why, I would suggest that the fault is in tlio making. Dairy factories aro almo.it non-existent, and there is no system of collecting the cream. It would be expensive to take cream even three times a week to a factory twelve or fourteen miles distant. In consequence of this, all in the district where I lived made their own and took it to market once a week.

Devonshire pastures are truly wonderful, and most of tho complaints I have beard about New Zealand butter are against its lack of any flavour. Both in summer and winter Devonshire fac-tory-made butter is greatly in demand and is tho dearest. Now we conic to the factor which I consider called for the disparaging remark oil Devon butter. Most of tho farms are very old, and their methods aro very primitive. Most houses in New Zealand have an ample water supply; practically all good farm houses have a stove and high pressure boiler. In Devon I never saw a house with one. Quite a number of the houses had no stoves at all. Water was heated in kettles hanging from an old-fashioned movable bar in the open fireplace. To me it appears that the fault of the dairy butter in Devon is accounted for in the. making. The utensils and containers arc not thoroughly cleansed with an abundant supply of boiling water. The labour that butter-making entails inclines people to let the cream get too sour before making, and finally they neglect to give the butter enough washings or don't even wash the buttermilk out of it at all. I have seen butter purchased one day in the market, and next day it is riddled with dark specks and positively uneatable. They have schools for butter-making, which young girls often attend with a view to going to work in a farnj house. Of course, at these schools the girls have all the necessities for good buttermaking; but when they get on the farms and have not the wherewithal to practise their learnings it is useless and they are very often abused by their mistresses for trying to go abput their work in the better way.

Many women scald every bit of the milk, and the butter is then made from Devonshire cream. These people generally lind a ready sale for their product. The farmers' wives either Sell their produce in a stall in tho market, for which they pay rent, or sell to the dealers who have receiving depots in the market square. In the summer, dealers frequently refuse to buy the butter at any figure, and likewise stall-holders cannot unload, the reason being: that their goods have become known for their bad qualities. 1 have omitted to add that I have seen butter in competitive exhibitions, made by women, who are recognised as good butter-makers, and yet. tlieir product has been riddled with black spots before taken away from the show. Now I go on to a tune when people prefer Devonshire butter to New Zealand, that is in the winter. Butter 'advances to about Is per pound for the best quality. Of course the Devonshire butter sellers could nowhere near supply the demand for Devon alone. Tlie year I left England C 1930) the best known butter-makers were getting uP to 2s 6d per pound. It is then that the butter-blenders get busy and make their monev. They buy ujl every bit of butter in the market, even what would be scorned in summer. In 19d0 one man I knew told me that he bought up about five tons oi New Zealand butter every week and mixed Jti with perhaps ten per cent, or Devon butter. After going through the mnohinew for Mendjrie. the remarkable- differences in colour become

obliterated. The butter is then put in wrappers and sent to shops all over England and sold at 2s 4d per pound. Ho paid Is 2d for the New Zealand butter, and somewhere in the region of 2a for the negligible quantity of Dovon butter lie used, leaving him with a clear profit of Is per pound. If the people knew that tliey were paying 2s 4d for the blended article and it contained so littlo Devon butter, I am suro they would not be will ins; to be fooled in this way. There cannot bo very much wrong with New Zealand butter if that mixture satisfies tho multitude. There is no doubt that the unadulterated Devon butter, made underconditions equal to those in New Zealand. would bo unbeatable. We have found that Jersey cows are wonderful for butter yields. In England tho farmers are forced to go in for a beast that will not only supply jyilk, but will produce calves that grow into prime beef. Even calves were worth £2 tlie day they were born, and at three weeks sell for £4. Tlie Devon cow is a very poor cream-producer in comparison with the Jersey, and that brings me back to the point that it i« the pnstures that count for so much, and;if we in New Zealand paid more attention to that w© could improve our butter .qualitywonderfully. It seems a very great pity that something cannot be done, so that our butter on arrival in England is already wrapped up in 'an attractive manner. Instead, I have seen it served from big blocks, a pound being hacked out of it by the shop assistant when required. Or, better still, if we established depots all over for the sale of our butter, honey, eggs, etc., we would thereby cheat tho butter blender of his . plunder. At the forthcoming Conference at Ottawa this matter might be gone into and fair play guaranteed. Thero is one other remark I wish to make. Can the abolition of the 2 or 2 J per cent, boric acid that was used in New Zealand butter have made any great difference? I have on rare occasions turned my bread and butter over to see if the bread was mouldy, as that was the impression it gave me; but I •found it was the butter- that gave that taste. The farmers may argue that during these hard times they cannot afford to top-dress. In England stable and cow and pig manure is collected and scattered over the fields, as weir as patent manures. The fields are ploughed deeply in turn, and either grass or clover sown afresh. No one would ever guess how hard the English farmers have to' work in comparison with colonials. I have noticed working men who have tried their hands in other countries never want to go back to their former livelihoods. • That is proof sufficient, even though they have .been farming on their own. Just before I left England there letters in the papers abgut the huge amounts of Irish butter imported into England and blended with English and sold at good prices. I wrote to Lord Beaverbroolc, and told him of the scandalous amount of New Zealand butter that the blenders purchased and mixed with their'own, making Is per pound; or thereabouts, profit by selling the blend as best English blended butter. My letter was acknowledged with thanks, and I noticed irt the New Zealand papers that the matter was being taken up and ways and means of remedy wore being pursued by other New Zealanders at Homo. One important thiug I have omitted is that in the winter, when English butter is highly priced, the fact that the animals are housed day and night and never have nnv sun should prevent *he butter from being as much favoured as it is, and- it must lack tho vitamins of butter produced in a climate where animals run' free in the open air and

get all the sunshine, to say nothing of being coated in winter, a thing I've aover seen anywhere in England. ';

I noticed W. and R. Fletcher's frozen meat shops in all the big towns in England. Why not have shops for butter aB well? It must be -advantageous to tho above firm, .or. it would not- keep them going. If the dairf companies all over New Zealand combined for that purpose, I think it would benefit them beyond measure, and they could check tho activities of the blender, -who; usually ..has his factory for blending down • in the country and supplies numerous shops all over England, either his own or belonging to some one. of the many co-operative stores. I would like to go on and tj 11 you why our beef and bacon .find so little demand. I would -willingly do so if I thought the knowledge I have, gained through living three years in Devon would be of use to my country.—Yours, etc.. . • WELL-WISHER. Hanmer Springs, Juno 10th, 1932.